Recreational and sporting equipment are continually being improved to increase their safety, ergonomics and ease of use. For example, in recent years snowshoes have advanced from early embodiments that typically comprised heavy wooden frames, leather webbing and crude leather straps for fastening the snowshoes to footwear. Today, a typical snowshoe comprises a lightweight aluminum frame, polymer webbing and a binding that includes one or more nylon straps, such as instep and heel straps, and devices, such as D-rings and snap connectors, that simplify the task of securing the snowshoe to footwear.
Unfortunately, snowshoe binding technology has generally lagged behind binding technology for other winter recreational and sporting equipment, such as alpine skis, cross-country skis and snowboards. Sophisticated step-in bindings, i.e., bindings that allow users to releasably secure the bindings to mating footwear simply by stepping into the bindings, for skis have been widely available for many years. Step-in bindings for snowboards have also become widely available, albeit more recently. Although the design parameters for step-in bindings for skis, snowboards and snowshoes may differ from one another, snowshoe users and makers alike could benefit from the addition of quality step-in bindings to snowshoes.
Though conventional features of ski and snowboard bindings could be incorporated into bindings for snowshoes, many of these features have at least one shortcoming. For example, conventional ski and snowshoe bindings often comprise relatively complex latch mechanisms that include large and heavy metal parts. Conventional bindings also generally do not have a latching mechanism that provides a one-size-fits-all design. Nor do these bindings provide a mechanism for adjusting the footwear support portion of the binding to adapt the binding to different footwear lengths. In addition, the latch mechanism of conventional bindings are often prone to reduced performance or improper functioning due to the buildup of snow and/or ice between the latches and the corresponding latch receivers on the footwear. Moreover, many conventional bindings can be used only with specially-configured footwear that is largely unsuitable for use other than with the corresponding bindings.